The 10 Biggest Winners and Losers from The Game Awards

Some games, publishers, and people shined brightly. Others...not so much.

By
Ryan McCaffrey

The 2017 edition of The Game Awards was a fantastic show, full of wonderful developer speeches, sterling games from throughout the year being recognized, and outstanding world premieres of upcoming titles. But who saw their stock rise at the event, and whose stock plummeted? Who crushed it and who got dented? From Josef Fares to Link’s motorcycle, these are the 2017 Game Awards’ biggest winners and losers.

Biggest Winners

Nintendo

When The Game Awards first began, Nintendo was a Wii U-fueled punchline. Fast-forward to 2017, and they’re back on top of the world. Everyone expected The Big N to clean up in the awards department one way or the other, and sure enough, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild took home the top prize for Game of the Year. They punctuated their win by unveiling (and then immediately releasing) their second big DLC expansion for Link’s latest. But Nintendo also managed to answer, in part, the question of, “What about 2018?” with a reveal of not just Bayonetta 1 and 2 ports for Switch, but an all-new Bayonetta 3 exclusively for Nintendo’s red-hot console as well – with Reggie Fils-Aime himself there to reveal it.

Sony

It doesn’t seem to matter how many press conferences and events there are in a year; Sony has games for them all. The Game Awards brought us a long-awaited re-reveal of Media Molecule’s Dreams, whose tools appear to be so robust that, judging from the trailer, almost anything is possible. And then of course we got a very long (if confusing) look at Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding. Babies in two-liter soda bottles (not to mention Norman Reedus’s tummy) aside, Kojima knows how to keep gamers riveted. Meanwhile, longtime PlayStation executive Andrew House took to the stage to deliver a well-crafted goodbye to a job he’s held for two decades. PlayStation had a big presence at this event.

Josef Fares

The always-outspoken filmmaker and gamemaker raised his profile to a whole new level by flipping the bird to the Oscars, saying that “All publishers f*** up sometimes,” and making host Geoff Keighley sweat by swerving both off-script and off-schedule. His brutal honesty and raw enthusiasm are infectious. And everyone who didn’t know who Fares was before knows who he is now. Of course, all that talk wouldn’t particularly matter if he had no game to back it up, but he has A Way Out. The new trailer looks fantastic, the free co-op buddy token is incredibly pro-gamer, and it’s out in March. I played it behind closed doors at E3 last year and can confirm that it’s shaping up to be something special.

Cuphead

Studio MDHR wore out a path to the stage at The Game Awards, taking home honors for Best Art Direction, Best Independent Game, and Best Debut Indie Game. And in the Best Art Direction category in particular, the 14-person team beat out the likes of Zelda, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Destiny 2, and Persona 5. That not only speaks to the borderline-insane level of meticulous detail poured into Cuphead’s hand-drawn art, but speaks to the flourishing health of the games industry in the sense of leveling the playing field. Sure, the big-budget games will always have built-in advantages, but thanks to the ubiquity and convenience of quality development tools, studios of any size can, with enough perseverance and talent, stand toe-to-toe with the titans of the industry. (Learn more about Studio MDHR’s story in our hour-long interview with Chad and Jared Moldenhauer on IGN Unfiltered.)

Campo Santo

Speaking of independent games and developers who can hang with the big (budget) kids, the Firewatch team at Campo Santo kicked off the Game Awards world premieres with a look at In the Valley of Gods. It’s a higher concept than Firewatch, and while renowned artist Olly Moss isn’t involved, the game nevertheless retains a unique art style – one whose visual appeal is aided by both its geographical and chronological setting. Your always-on-screen AI partner is reminiscent of BioShock Infinite, and its writing is almost guaranteed to be good given the Campo team’s collective resumes, which include not just Firewatch but The Walking Dead Season 1 as well.

Biggest Losers

Microsoft

If Microsoft wonders why it continues to lag behind Sony in both market share and mindshare this generation, it should look no further than how it approached The Game Awards. The excellent, just-released Xbox One X, which was heavily marketed to the very enthusiast gamers who watch this event, was nonexistent here. Games-wise, Microsoft brought exactly zero reveals or world premieres to the show, outside of a release date trailer for its biggest new IP in years...except that trailer was an ad crowbar’d in between other ads outside of the actual event. No Crackdown 3. No State of Decay 2. No Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Nothing, outside of a cursory mention that PUBG is coming to Xbox as well as PC. All this while Sony brought the aforementioned Dreams, Death Stranding, and Andrew House, and Nintendo brought Reggie, Bayonetta 1, 2, and 3, Zelda DLC, and two 10/10 Game of the Year nominees (and one winner). Xbox fans deserved a better showing.

Metro: Exodus

Have developers and publishers learned nothing from vertical slice PR fiascoes like Aliens: Colonial Marines and Watch Dogs? Metro: Exodus wowed us at its E3 reveal, but its Game Awards trailer suggested that its impressive unveiling was all smoke and mirrors. The real Metro: Exodus showed itself here, and while it still looks very nice in the graphics department, it’s an obvious downgrade from the stunning first trailer. On top of that, it simply didn't show or tell us much about the game.

GTFO

There’s nothing bad to say about the game itself. The four-player Left 4 Dead-ish horde shooter from the makers of PayDay looked excellent. But that title? Oof. Dumb acronyms/gamer phrases make for even worse game titles. Anyone remember Pwned from earlier this year? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Super Mario Odyssey

To be clear, Super Mario Odyssey is the opposite of a loser. It’s a winner. It was a Game of the Year award nominee at The Game Awards, as it is here at IGN. But on this stage in 2017, it was the Curt Schilling to Breath of the Wild’s Randy Johnson (2001 World Champion Dbacks, REPRESENT!); the “1B” to Zelda’s “1A” after being shut out of every award outside of Best Family Game. In any other year Mario probably would’ve taken home all the big trophies. Instead it got none. Odyssey deserved better.

Zelda Canon

I’m not sure I can ever take Hyrule lore seriously ever again after the unveiling of the Master Cycle Zero in Breath of the Wild’s new expansion. I know you can’t get it until you’ve done basically everything else in the game, but come on, it’s just ridiculous and doesn’t fit with the tone of Breath of the Wild at all! For all I know it'll end up being ridiculously fun, but for now, I'm left scratching my head.

Who do you think were The Game Awards’ biggest winners and losers? Let’s hear it in the Comments below, and for a recap of every award winner, big announcement, and new trailer from the event, check out our recap.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews and Xbox Guru-in-Chief. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.